How She Almost Got Away With Murder
by wineandwhiskey
Summary: Division takes recruits from the prison ranks, gives people a second chance. But this recruit has never even been arrested, so how did she get here? Six months after Nikita goes rogue, the organization searches for somebody to replace her. But they might have bitten off more than they can chew with this one. And why can't Birkhoff seem to stay away from this particular recruit?BxOC
1. Chapter 1

_**Location: Saks Shopping Mall**_

A silver car blasting Katy Perry pulls up in front of the designer outlet, driving past the full parking lot. Ignoring the sign that warns shoppers not to park in the fire lane, the door opens and a girl steps one Mary Jane heel on the pavement. She slings her purse over her shoulder, and pushes her sunglasses on top of her head. Clicking the lock button on her car, she shrugs at the other shoppers who are glaring at her for blocking the fire lane. It was as if they expected her to drive around for half an hour looking for half a space to squeeze into. Balancing her phone between her ear and shoulder, she tosses her keys into her bag.

"Well I have nothing to wear tonight." She reasons into her phone. "I won't be here longer than an hour, and then I'll meet you and dad across the street for dinner.

Her parents have been planning this celebration dinner for the entire week to celebrate her dad's promotion. Bill Stanford was really moving up the ranks of his insurance company. The new management came complete with an enviable company car; a sleek black jaguar, and a top floor office. They had all been ecstatic, and decided to celebrate Bill's accomplishment with dinner out at the new fancy Italian restraint, Silvio Antonio's.

"Anna, you have tons of dresses in your closet." Her mother sighed on the other end.

"But this is Silvio Antonio's! I can't wear just anything. When do we ever go anywhere fancy these days? This occasion deserves the perfect dress." She looked up at the Saks sign before walking in.

"Have you even paid off your credit card bills yet?" Lisa asked.

"Well..not exactly. But I mean who has any hope of that? You'd have to be a millionaire or something. The key to credit cards is to buy whatever you want on them, and then just make the minimum payments until you die."

Lisa wasn't going to have this discussion again right now. "Just don't be late. Our reservations are at 7 pm sharp."

"Sure thing. Love you." Anna pushed the end button and tossed her phone back in her purse. She may have a small shopping problem but it makes her happy, so who cares?

She walked through the store stopping at her favorite brand, Neiman Marcus. She found the perfect sapphire dress to wear to the event. Risking a look at the price tag, she noticed it read 900 dollars. Not caring, she tossed it into her shopping cart and proceeded to the register. Flirting with the cute Spanish guy behind the counter, she swipes her credit card and walks out the door.

Walking back to her car she notices the slip of paper on her windshield. "Damn it." She mutters. Taking out her phone once more she snaps a picture of it, before tearing it in half and throwing it in the trash outside the store. Having to go home and change, she calls her friend Wendy on the drive" Hey Wendyy." She says sweetly.

"Goddamn it Anna, you got another one didn't you?"

"Maybee. But I was only in the store for like twenty minutes!

"Are you ever going to learn to park correctly?" her redheaded friend asks.

"Probably not. Could you just please make this one go away. It's the last time I promise!"

Anna hears a loud groan on the other line. "Fine I'll take care of it."

"Thank you, love you bestie! Are we still going to see that new movie on Friday?"

"Of course. Well I need to go if you want me to get this ticket out of the system."

Anna's friend was pretty good with computers. She learned how to hack things their sophomore year of high school in order to get free movie channels. She couldn't pull off anything hardcore, but she was always hacking into the DMV to erase Anna's parking tickets. The girl could barely go three months without getting one. Proper parking habits have never been important to her because she never had to waste hours of her life searching for spots.

Pulling into the parking lot of her apartment building, she grabs her Saks bag and goes up to her floor to change. She puts on the dress and pairs it with some black pumps. Not being able to curl her long blonde hair by herself, she flips her head over and blow dries it to add volume. Adding one last coat of eyeliner to her brown eyes, she looks in the mirror and decides she's done. Smiling at her reflection, she turns to leave the bathroom and head to the restaurant.

Pulling into the lot of Silvio Antonio's, late as usual, she spots her dad's brand new jaguar in the parking lot. As she walks into the building, she notices two big guys in fancy Italian suits intently staring.

'_Damn'_ she though. _'Take a picture, you'd think they'd never seen a luxury car before.'_

She sees the guys getting into a black caddy and driving away. _'Weirdos' _As she swings open the door, she notices a jaguar almost identical to her dad's pulling up. She decides they have good taste, and walks in to meet her parents.

Anna slides into her parent's booth. "Congratulations daddy!" she squeals excitedly, leaning over to give Bill a big hug.

"Thank you sweetie!" Bill returns the hug.

"I know how long you've waited for this opportunity, and you really deserve it." Anna reaches into her purse, and pulls out a brown watch. "It's no Rolex, but I figured every company man should have one of these.

Bill's eyes crinkle as he smiles at his daughter. "Thank you Anna." He reaches over to put it on his wrist.

The family has a great time eating the fancy food and celebrating Bill's newfound success. They finish up the last few bites of their dessert before Bill ends the evening. "Well Anna it's been fun, but I need to get home to bed, I need a full night of rest for all this work they have me doing."

"It's like they think you're a manager or something!" Laughing at the joke, they all hug and start walking out of the restaurant.

"I'll see you next week for dinner!" Fiona calls, starting the long walk to her car. She had decided to park properly for once, and the only available spaces were far away, almost at the cheap Long John Silver's next door. When she reaches her car, she pushes the button to unlock her doors, before she hears a loud explosion.

Scared out of her wits, she blocks her ears, as she hears the other patrons screaming. She dares to look up , and sees a flaming pile of metal where her dad's new jaguar once was. The world went still for awhile, as Anna stared blankly at the flames, oblivious to the sirens and screaming around her. Her whole body was shaking, and she could barely breathe. Once the ambulance pulled up to the car and the EMTs started to survey the damage, it started to sink it and she screamed bloody murder. Falling to the ground and hyperventilating, she dug her fingernails into the pavement panting until everything went black.

_**Location: Saint John's Hospital**_

Anna woke with a start on a rickety hospital bed_. _A short brunette nurse was sitting on the neighboring bed, looking at her sympathetically.

"You passed out from a panic attack." She explained as if everything was as simple as that. "You've been out cold for a few hours."

"How..what…" Anna tried to catch her breath, unable to get a coherent sentence out.

"The police would like to speak with you when you're ready." The nurse patted her shoulder and then left the room, unsure of what else to do to comfort the girl.

A forty something police man walked in and sat at the edge of Anna's bed. "There's no easy way to tell you any of this.." he began reluctantly. "This was a mob hit gone wrong."

"What?" Anna said disbelievingly.

Two mob families have been at war with each other for years now. Fat Sal ordered a hit on Mikey T, the boss of the rival mafia group.

"What the hell does any of this shit have to do with anything?" Anna interrupted.

The cop continued. "Mikey T has been known to frequent Silvio Antonio's, it's owned by his brother. Also when he goes, he always takes his black jaguar."

The color drained from Anna's face. "You mean.."

"The goons rigged the wrong car." The cop finished. "Your father's car is the exact same model as Mikey T's and they assumed it was his."

Anna stood up from the bed, half panicked, half fuming. "So those goddamn idiots just rig a car with explosives without even checking the freaking license plate! Or making sure it was his!" she started shaking.

"These guys are idiots, and they are criminals, and we are doing everything we can to bring him to justice." The cop reassured.

"Great, when's his trial, I'll be sure to be there to spit in his face."

"We have been unable to apprehend him so far. We have no solid proof of him being behind the hit, and the mob soldiers he used are nowhere to be found."

"So he's just going to get away with this!"

"We are doing everything in our power to further this investigation." The cop stands and starts to walk out of the room. "We would be happy to give you a ride back to your apartment."

Anna slammed the door shut behind her, still in tears from today's events "Thanks for nothing!" she fumed. "Useless freaking.." she trailed off muttering to herself. Turning on the TV, she stops on the cable news station.

"_Police are still searching for the culprit of this horrendous crime. Suburban couple Lisa and Bill Stanford were the unfortunate collateral damage of this ongoing mob war. Fat Sal currently remains at large."_

A picture of him comes up on the screen. Taking out her phone, she snaps a picture, and a nasty smile spreads over her face. "If the cops won't take care of you Fat Sal, then I will." She picks up her remote, and throws it at the flat screen, shattering the plasma.

_**One Week Later**_

Anna wakes to a pounding on her door. "Anna open up. Please, I just want to talk." Her unwelcome visitor pleads.

Throwing off the covers, causing several bottles of alcohol to clang to the floor, she shuffles over to the door. This is the last thing she needs to deal with today. Wrenching open the door, she finds herself face to face with John, the asshole who can't leave her alone. It was tolerable when he followed her around, but lately he had graduated to full on obsessive stalking, and it was really starting to scare her.

"If I let you in for a drink, will you go away after?"

"Of course!" she doesn't believe him, but she's been drinking alone for long enough. Slamming a glass on the table, she dumps some wine into it. Gladly accepting it, he starts walking around the apartment, stopping when he sees a picture of Fat Sal on her kitchen table. "What's.." Anna rushes over and throws some old bills over the photo. "Mind your own business."

Anna had been researching Fat Sal all week. She was learning his likes, dislikes, business deals, and routine. The news reported many details of his life in the breaking stories following the ongoing mob pursuit. What the news couldn't offer she found out from others. She started frequenting Mikey T's territory, innocently asking questions about the rival boss.

"Old Fat Sal is a sleaze ball."

"Can't stay out of strip clubs for more than an hour."

"Likes Russian girls."

"Eats at Meatball Mania every Monday." 

"He has this thing about having to go in public bathroom completely alone. How weird is that?"

That last bit was very useful to her. She had a whole notepad full of details. She had decided she was going to kill Fat Sal herself. And idiot John's appearance had sealed his fate as her fall guy. She remembered on their one date his stories of all his cool guns.

"Hey John, could I come for dinner tonight." She asked with fake sweetness.

John looked completely shocked. "Of course!"

"Great!" she said ushering him out the door. "Go start cooking, I'll be by later."

After her creepy stalker left, she started to plan this all out. Tomorrow was Monday, and Fat Sal would be going to Meatball Mania's for dinner. He would undoubtedly have to use the restroom at some point during the night, and go in alone per his unusual preferences. Anna had been to the place a few days ago, and noticed some vents that went into the bathroom through the ceiling. She could grab John's gun, climb into the vents, shoot him with the silencer on, drop the gun, and crawl back through the vents. She would make sure to wear gloves so John's fingerprints would be on the gun, not hers. Two birds with one stone, Fat Sal would be dead, and her creepy stalker would go down for it.

That night while eating dinner at John's, she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Once upstairs she snuck into his bedroom, reached under his bed, and grabbed his gun with a scarf, shoving it into her bag. Walking back down, she gives him a brief hug. "I have to go, work early tomorrow." She's only half lying.

_**Location: Meatball Mania 6:55 pm**_

Anna walks into the meatball place, with her now heavy purse slung over her shoulder. Walking into the ladies room, she walks into the stall below the air vents. Slipping on some fashion gloves to avoid fingerprints, she stands on the toilet and removes the vent cover. She clumsily climbs in and replaces the cover where she found it. Shuffling around in the air vents, she finally finds the one inside the men's restroom. Now all there is to do is wait. Her heart is beating rapidly, and the anticipation is making time go by slower. She could have been in that vent for ten minutes or two hours, she honestly couldn't tell the difference at that point. Finally she hears the door creak open.

Looking through the slats, she sees the unmistakable large figure of Fat Sal walking into the room. Carefully, she pushes the vent cover off, and turns it before dragging it into the air vent with her. Picking up the gun, she waits until he begins to open one of the stall doors. Always prepared, she remembered to turn the silencer on ahead of time, so now all she needed to do was aim.

Grasping the gun with shaking hands, she inches her index finger towards the trigger. The shot was all lined up, and Anna took a deep breath before firing. The recoil startles her, and she slides back into the vent breathing heavily. Looking down, she sees the awful mobster slumped against the stall door, bleeding through the side of his head.

Quickly, she throws the gun to the ground, and replaces the vent cover before shuffling back to the ladies room. The light from the room seems blinding after the time spent in the dark vents, and Anna takes a second to get her bearings. She yanks off her gloves and stuffs them in her purse, yanking it closed. Going over to the mirror, she straightens out her hair, takes a calming breath, and walks back out into the restaurant.

The large hostess stops her on her way out. "Miss, your takeout order is ready." He hands her a styrofoam container.

She flashes him a fake cheery smile in response. "Thank you sir. Have a great night!" Once she was at her car, she started the ignition, and proceeded calmly out of the parking lot so she wouldn't rouse suspicion. Making a quick pit stop, she chucks the gloves in a gas station trash can, pouring a half full smoothie over it.

**One Week Later**

_Breaking News at 10!_

"_After a week investigation regarding the death of notorious mob boss Fat Sal, the police have apprehended the culprit. Sal was found shot in the restrooms of Meatball Mania, the restaurant he frequented. Authorities believe the assailant took advantage of the victim's vulnerable status while using the restroom, and used the opportunity to walk in, shoot him dead, and then walk back out. Police have found the murder weapon stashed behind a paper towel dispenser. After a forensic investigation, police have identified the fingerprints on the gun as belonging to one John Smith. Further investigation has also revealed the gun to be registered in his name." _

"_I didn't do it! I was set up!" The camera flashes to John Smith being dragged out of his apartment and handcuffed. "I don't know how that gun got there!"_

_Bail is set for fifty thousand dollars. Trial is scheduled three months from now. _

Anna shuts off her new television with a satisfying click. She had successfully pulled it off. No one was the wiser. She had gotten revenge for her family, and she was rid of her stalker.

**Five Months Later**

"Hey Steve have you seen Birkhoff?" Michael asks the young tech sitting in the back of Operations.

"I believe he has the day off sir." Steve responded, trembling.

Michael sighed, and walked up to the front row of computers. He asks the tech with thick black glasses for assistance. "Why is Birkhoff always MIA on the most important ops?" The techie shrugs. "I'm going to need two strike teams sent to this location, we are to intercept a mob hit that's about to go down."

"Really why?" The wide eyed tech in the back asks.

"Percy's orders. Just send those teams out ASAP."

After discussing it over with Percy, he believes this will be worth all the effort and loss.

**Location: Chinese Buffet**

Takeout bag in hand, Anna casually walks down the sidewalk toward the parking lot. She's typing a long text to her friend, and not aware of her surroundings. Reaching her car, she throws her purse on the hood, and starts digging through it looking for her keys. She's so focused on her task that she fails to notice the groups of Italian men in Armani suits coming towards her. The gun toting goons start to surround her car, and one clicks his gun.

Wide eyed, Anna looks up and realizes she's cornered against her car, and that these mobsters were very angry at her. "Hey guys, what's up?" was all she managed before the firing started.

Luckily for her, the bullets were being aimed at Sal's men, not at her. Locked in a gunfight, the mobsters turn away from her, and start shooting at the unknown men coming out of black SUVs. Bodies start falling to the ground as the battle rages on.

Anna takes this opportunity to grab her bag and run. Unfortunately she doesn't get very far in her impractical high heels, and trips, falling to the ground. Reflexes kicking in, she manages to throw her arms out to catch herself, but the impact is still very painful. One of the mobsters breaks away from the warzone and grabs her by her dress strap, roughly pulling her up. Anna starts screaming and kicking, hitting the man in the knee cap with her stiletto. He groans in pain, but is undeterred and reaches for a gun on the ground. An unidentified figure tackles him to the ground and shoots him with his own weapon. As Anna watches the terrifying battle in front of her, she doesn't notice the needle coming towards her until she's out cold.

**Division Headquarters**

A can is suddenly crushed on the table. "I'm out!" Birkhoff calls out into Operations. He looks around, searching for somebody to bring him another Red Bull. Nobody is paying any attention to him, everyone in Operations is staring at the screens and discussing tactical plans with each other. He stretches his arms above his head, and reluctantly gets up from his chair. "I guess I'll just have to get it myself." He mumbles. Nobody appreciates his genius, which is just the sad truth of Birkhoff's life.

Cracking open another can, he takes a big swig before returning to his station, resigning himself to being at the agents' beck and call out in the field. He starts communicating with team Alpha through their com devices when Michael walks in, heading over to BIrkhoff's station. Before he can speak to Birkhoff, one of the computer guys gets his attention. "Sir, they just brought in the next batch of recruits. You'll need to go to their rooms and brief them when they wake up. "

Birkhoff rolled his eyes. "That's just great, a couple more half-brained dimwits that Percy expects us to shape into decent agents. Dealing with the recruits was one of Birkhoff's least favorite jobs. They were dumb and unfocused tweens who didn't take a single assignment seriously, and instead spent their instruction time cracking jokes and spreading rumors about him. Then they had the nerve to complain about him being so hostile towards them. Being mocked day in and day out, would eat away at anyone. Birkhoff would snap at them, and point out their lack of technical skills to try to gain some of his self-respect back. It didn't work, and he just felt like a big joke in this facility. Even the agents just saw him as this little computer geek who did their bidding, and mapped out their mission locations. He was always the one spotting things on the cameras and saving everyone's asses, but nobody ever recognized that. They all just laughed at him, or shook their heads in pity at him sitting at his terminal, chugging energy drinks until he finally passed out from exhaustion. Falling asleep at his computer was a common occurrence, which everyone thought was so hilarious. All the extra work he put in, and all he got was mockery.

Anna woke up to a bright light turning on above her head. She sits up, noticing she's in a strange bed in a plain white room. The last thing she remembers before waking up was being surrounded by a bunch of mobsters with guns. Trembling, she looks around the room realizing she must be in some made man's house. The door suddenly opens, and a guy in a dark suit walks in.

"Hello Anna. My name is Michael." He began. He walks over to her bed and hands her some sheets of paper. "Your life is now over, but I'm here to give you a chance at a new one."

Anna looks at the papers. "What the hell?" she has no idea what's going on.

Michael turns the page. She sees a tombstone with her name on it. "Anna Stanford, this is where you're buried. The authorities ruled your death a mob hit."

Anna glared at him, her heart racing. "Is this some sick threat? You're showing me where you're going to bury me after you kill me!" she throws the papers in his face. "That is not going to be mine, you're not going to get me!" She jumps out of the bed and tries to run out of the room before being grabbed by Michael.

"Let me go you Mafioso piece of shit!" she screams, struggling against his hold. 

"Anna I am not with the mob. I represent the government, an organization called Division."

Anna turns around facing him trying to wrench her arms out of his grasp. She reaches across his forearms and digs her nails hard into his flesh, making long deep scratches. "Ahh." Michael grunts, temporarily letting go of her. Blood dripping down his arms, he makes it to the door before she gets the chance to move. "I'm telling you the truth. Listen, we're the ones who saved your life and got rid of those mobsters. So why don't we start trusting each other a little more."

Anna looks at him skeptically. "I work for the government. We go by Division. We're offering you a second chance, you can train to serve your country."

'Why the hell would you want me?"

"We were impressed how you managed to take out high profile target Salvatore M. He was actually on our hit list."

"I didn't kill anybody! John did it! He's in jail now." Anna argued.

"Yes you did a good job framing him for that. The police and media bought it, but Salvatore's guys didn't. Why do you think there was a mob hit on you? We were impressed that you were able to get away with your crime, and make your tormentor take the fall for it."

Michael knocked on the door, signaling to the guard outside. The big goon hands Michael a plastic bag. "Here are some clean clothes for you." He said noticing the dirt on her arms, and the rips in her pants from falling on the pavement.

Anna looks inside and sees a white tank top, gray sweater, and hideous blue corduroy pants. "I want yoga pants." She demanded. "I'm not wearing these ugly things."

Michael nodded. "Okay Anna, we can accommodate that. We're reasonable people." He figured obliging her simple request would help form trust and cooperation. Hopefully then he could sit down with her and explain what this organization was about.

The next day Anna starts to walk back to her room after her first training session. It wasn't too bad actually, it was beneficial to learn some basic punch blocking skills. Some of the other recruits had noticed her yoga pants and demanded they receive them as well. One day in and she was already improving things. No one should have to wear those horrible corduroy swish pants. As she's walking down the hall she hears a commotion going on in the women's bathroom. She notices a messenger bad outside the door. Opening the door, she sees two other new recruits sticking some guy's head down the toilet.

The two recruits that were brought in with her are idiots. The first one Tommy, was fresh off the street. He seemed to still be going through the drug detoxification process. The second one Peter was absolutely horrible. He had already gotten reprimanded by Michael for ripping one of the boxing dummies to shreds with his bare hands. Most of the other recruits were scared of him. Between the two of them they didn't have two brain cells to rub together. It wouldn't be surprising if they ended up cancelled.

Luckily Anna and Michael now see eye to eye. Once she realized he wasn't part of Salvatore's gang trying to kill her, she apologized for scratching him, and the two were able to have a good conversation. Michael told her not to worry about it, and that he's seen worse reactions from recruits in the past.

Walking over to the stall she glares at the two idiots. "What the hell are you guys doing?" she shrieks, shoving them out of the way. With their hands off him, the guy shoots up gasping for air. "That is not funny! That is cruel, and you are going to make him sick! Look at that toilet, they never clean these nasty bathrooms!" She chases them out, their faces looking horrified when she tells them they took their victim into the wrong bathroom.

She turns to the guy she saved from the toilet. He has shoulder length dark blonde hair, which is soaked from the toilet water, dark blue eyes, and a little bit of scruff on his face. Unlike any of the other recruits, or agents, he has on a black and white plaid shirt, dark wash jeans and converse shoes. She assumes he was a recruit since those guys wouldn't be stupid enough to give an agent a swirly, and felt a little miffed that she wasn't the only exception they made for the uniforms. Maybe he had literally just gotten here, and his welcome wagon consisted of a toilet dunk. "Put your head in the sink." She instructs him.

"What?" he looks genuinely confused.

Shaking her head, she drags him over, and sticks his head in the sink, turning the faucet on. "Shut your eyes, and tell me if this is too hot." Sticking her hand under the soap dispenser, she takes a glob of the soap and starts lathering it into his hair. She also takes a little and gently rubs it over his face. When she finishes she unzips her sweatshirt and hands it to him. "That should tide you over until you can get to a shower. Here, you can dry off with this rag." He looks at her like he has no idea what to make of her.

"I'm Anna." She greets. "I just got here, and so did those idiots. Names are Tommy and Peter. I think Division invented a time machine and grabbed those guys right out of their caves. "The guy laughs a little at that. "I'd stay away from them if I were you, going near them equals bad times. You read me?" she smiles and starts to walk out of the bathroom.

"I'm Birkhoff." The guy finally responds.

She turns around. "Nice to meet you Birkhoff." Then she pushes open the door, and is gone from the room.

**Ten Minutes Earlier**

Birkhoff runs out of Percy's office with his proverbial tail between his legs. The boss is in a bad mood today, and as per usual takes it out on his whipping boy. Percy screamed at him for a technical difficulty that lasted ten seconds while the Alpha Team was on an op. It wasn't even his fault, the idiot in the back of the room wasn't paying attention and hit some wrong buttons, severing the technical connection. He sighed, Operations is only as good as its weakest member.

The Red Bull finally catching up to him, he makes a quick stop to the bathrooms. On his way he notices two of the new recruits he saw earlier in his computer class. "Hey look it's the tech geek!" Peter taunts, pointing at Birkhoff.

"Nerd!" Tommy agrees. The two guys share a look before strolling over to Birkhoff, each grabbing one of his arms.

"What the hell do you think you're.."

"Shh!" Tommy demands, shoving him into the women's bathroom. They had to get him out of the hallway before one of the guards noticed.

Dragging him into a stall, Peter pushes up the lid, and they share another smug look before shoving his head in the toilet.

This has been a very bad day for Birkhoff. He knows he can have them severely punished, possibly even cancelled, but that didn't erase this event from occurring. He thought he was past all this bullying, he was a well-known hacker now, not some twelve year old geek sitting alone at the lunch table. He tried to hold his breath, not wanting swallow the toilet water. Suddenly their hands come off him, and he takes this opportunity to lift his head up. He may not be a well-trained field agent, but he had some fighting skills he could use on these guys. Reaching the surface, he hears a female yelling at them. "It's cruel! You're going to make him sick, look at that toilet, they don't clean these nasty bathrooms!" Birkhoff suddenly knows what their punishment is going to be. Scrubbing the bathroom ceiling to floor with a toothbrush, before a nice day spent in solitary.

"Do you morons even know you're in the women's room?"

He finally opens his eyes and sees their retreating forms. "Get the hell out seriously." The blonde girl shoves the straggling one through the door before fixing her brown eyes on him. "Stick your head in the sink." She says suddenly.

What the…

He doesn't even have time to respond before she's dragging him over and sticking his head under herself. "Shut your eyes, and tell me if the water's too hot." She warns before turning the faucet on. He suddenly feels her fingers on his scalp, lathering up the bathroom soap. Was she washing his hair for him? Birkhoff just stood there at the sink in shock. She then spread a thin layer of soap over his face before rinsing him and turning the faucet off. "That should hold you over until you can get to a shower." He opens his eyes and sees her handing him her sweatshirt. "You can dry off with this rag." She stays there with her arm outstretched until he finally takes it, and uses it to dry his dripping hair.

"I'm Anna. I just got here and so did those idiots, Tommy and Peter. I think Division has invented a time machine and snatched them right out of their caves" he cracked a small smile at the joke. She was kind of funny. "I would stay away from them if I were you, going near them equals bad times, you read me." Oh Birkhoff didn't need to stay away from them, they needed to stay away from Birkhoff. Those idiots were going to be very sorry. He notices Anna is about to walk out of the bathroom. "I'm Birkhoff." He says quietly. She turns and gives him the first smile he thinks he's ever received at Division. "Nice to meet you Birkhoff." She then opens the door and walks out leaving him standing there with her sweatshirt and a weird feeling in his stomach. Nobody had ever been that nice to him before. He wishes that he had someone to help clean him up back in school. He was thankful that he was at least cleaner now, and didn't have to walk through the Division halls wet with toilet water, enduring the judgmental stares of everybody he walked by.

After showering in the recruit locker rooms, he walks by the open bathrooms propped open by door stops, and sees Tommy scrubbing the women's room, and Peter scrubbing the men's. He gives them a smug smile on the way by. That'll teach them to mess with Seymour Birkhoff.

**Yay first chapter! I don't know where the swirly thing came from. It's just something I thought the two jock guys would try to do to a "geek", and they were stupid enough to mess with Birkhoff. Let me know what you think in a review, pretty please. **


	2. Chapter 2

Michael leads Anna down a long hallway, and stops at a set of double doors. "Go in and have a seat. Amanda will be with you momentarily. She's just finishing interroga..debriefing an agent." He corrects.

Glad to be out of her recruit dorm, Anna walks into the elegant room, awed by the ambiance. Unlike the rest of Division's plain and dull appearance, this room was colorful and spacious, complete with designer furniture and an expansive wardrobe. She wanders over to a makeup table with brushes and palettes set up next to a mirror. Noticing a bottle of deep red nail polish, she looks down to her own chipped fingernails. Figuring she could use a touch up while waiting for this mystery woman, she dips her fingers into the nail polish remover, cleansing them of the old polish. Wiping her hands with a moist towelette, she begins applying the polish to her nails, seated in the chair. When Amanda walks into the room, this is how she finds Anna, nonchalantly painting her nails.

Hearing the clicking of Amanda's heels, the girl looks up and smiles. 'Hi. You must be Amanda."

Amanda observes her sitting there, applying a coat of polish to her nails. She had to admit that this is a first. Usually the recruits were cowering on her couch, or defiantly arguing with her. Feeling her stare Anna holds up the brush. "They were chipped." She explains. "I'm really impressed by your collection by the way. I like to do nails." She looks down at Amanda's nails briefly. "I can do yours too if you want."

Surprised, Amanda walked over to the makeup table, pulling along a chair behind her. Deciding there was no harm in indulging the girl, she placed her rarely un-manicured hands flat on the surface. She had to admit it was a nice change to have a recruit who was even remotely interested in cosmetics. Usually they protested, refusing to let the stuff anywhere near their face. Recruits were referred to as scrubs for more reasons than one, a big one being that they looked like strung out drug addicts pulled straight out of the gutter. Anna takes one of Amanda's hands, grabbing a file to shape her nails. "I think Michael's still a little grumpy." She offers.

"Yes I heard you scratched most of the skin off his arms." Amanda replied.

"I said I was sorry.'" Anna reasoned, not looking up from Amanda's fingers. "I thought he was with the mafia. And come on, that can't be the worst reaction he's ever gotten from a new recruit."

Amanda's lips quirk into a small smirk. "Indeed it was not." She replied, remembering the first day they brought Nikita in. She fought the guards like a true savage, biting and kicking. It got so bad that they had to restrain her to prevent her from any more violent escape attempts. Then there was another male recruit whose name Amanda couldn't remember, who killed himself by repeatedly bashing his head against the wall in his room. By the time the guards noticed the noise, it had been too late.

Anna actually seemed pretty civilized. She was starting to see Percy's reasons for bringing her in, as unorthodox as that mission was. Ten members of one of their best strike teams were sacrificed to get her out of that mob fight. The new Don had somehow figured out Anna was the one behind the hit on Sal's life. Division was still trying to figure out how they got word of that. The authorities were completely fooled, and Anna's fall guy was still locked behind bars. The only reason Division found out was through an undercover agent who happened to be eating at the restaurant, and noticed Anna's trip to and from the restroom fit into the time parameters of the shooting. Said agent had proceeded to go into the restroom after the police and medical staff had left, and noticed the vents screen was put on incorrectly. It may have slipped the notice of the police, but to the trained eye it was obvious somebody had been in those vents. The overweight John was not their first guess. Amanda realized that this girl really has some true potential. She was interested to see what she would learn during this session.

Birkhoff walks into the computer lab with his laptop bag slung over his shoulder. He doesn't make eye contact with any of the recruits as he walks by. Once he reaches the front of the room, he shrugs the bag off, and unzips it, starting to set up his laptop and tablets that he will need for the class. As he is setting up he can hear the mundane chatter of the recruits. Not caring about their nonsense, he half tunes it out, until a particular conversation peaks his interest.

"Where's Anna?" a recruit named Jimmy asks.

"Well class starts at 9 so she should be here by 10:30!" a recruit named Johnna says with a giggle.

"Oh, no I already have that covered. I told her class starts at 8:30, so she should be right on time." A third recruit in the back pipes up in a joking tone. "It's important we all do our part to keep her alive in here."

Two minutes later Anna walks down the steps, smiling at all the people in the class. "Hey guys, sorry I'm late."

"Actually you're right on time." Sasha smiles, gesturing to the computer seat next to her "I gave you a wrong time on purpose so you wouldn't be late. I don't know how I'm going to keep you on time for the rest of the days we're down here though."

"And you can thank me for waking your ass up this morning. And by that I mean literally picking you up and dragging you out of bed." Johnna said turning around to look at Anna.

"It was really early." Anna complained, plopping herself on her stool. Looking to her computer, she addresses the room as a whole. "So what do we do in here anyway? If this teacher breaks out that type to learn shit, I'm going to start breaking things."

"No, no, no, there's none of that." The class replies in unison. They wish they could do some type to learn assignments. The lessons Birkhoff has been giving them are awful. Half of them are completely lost, and launching the wrong exploits each time.

Birkhoff has remained silent since Anna walked in, observing her interactions with the brainless recruits. She hasn't noticed him yet. Big surprise. He can feel his face fall.

Sasha points to the window of today's assignment and Anna pulls it up, starting to read it. "Node 1.." she muses. "What's a node?" she asks the class.

A chorus of shrugs and unsureness echoes throughout the room, and Anna continues to read. "I think I have it!" she says excitedly. "A node is this connection you have to use in order to get into the system!" She pulls up more windows of the assignment. "Okay, so this is a motherboard, this is the main circuit, and this is a shell code." She feels proud of herself for figuring that out. "So we have to hack into this system."

The rest of the recruits look back to her with interest, having picked up more about this stuff than they were able to grasp. She starts typing in some lines of code, but can't figure out the proper format. "This is so confusing. Why does there need to be parentheses inside of brackets. Then you have to capitalize the first letter of the second word. What is that symbol? That right there is that neglected keyboard symbol that nobody knows or uses." She looks around the room. "Where's the teacher?"

The students all turn to look at Birkhoff at the front of the room. Some brave souls even point to him. Anna's eyes lock on him. "Oh." The surprise was evident on her face. "Hey." She smiles at him and turns back to her computer screen. The class is surprised he is not giving her a hard time, or really saying much of anything. The back row continues to watch Anna try to hack into the system. They then turn to their own computers and try to copy her work. Birkhoff watches Anna for a bit, then looks down at his tablet to watch everybody's progress. Nobody has come even close to hacking into the system, and he shakes his head. "Come on, penetrate the system! Five seconds until the system dumps you." Some of the middle row students sigh and half-heartedly type. He can tell that they don't care. "Three, two, one. Fail." He sighs.

"Hey I think you almost had it." Sasha says encouragingly to Anna. Birkhoff looks down at her tablet to see what she had entered. She was on the right track, she was just having difficulty writing the code in its proper format. She didn't use enough brackets, and put some symbols where they didn't belong. Still it was impressive for her first day. Most of these brainless idiots couldn't figure out codes for weeks. It got so bad he started writing the exploits out for them, and seeing if they could simply apply it into the program to perform the attack. Turns out they couldn't even do that.

"Well I totally suck." Anna said with a laugh.

"Don't worry Anna." A guy in the front reassures. "Nobody can do this crap anyway."

"All right everyone out." Birkhoff tells the class, although not in his usual rude tone. He hears the sound of stools scraping against the floor as they start to stand up. "Not you." He says to Anna. "Stay here for a minute please."

At that some of the recruits turn around. They had never heard him say something as polite as please. After a few minutes he got tired of their gawking. "Let's go, one foot in front of the other. That's easy enough for you right?" He watches their retreating forms before walking over to Anna.

"I just wanted to tell you I was impressed with your work." He compliments.

"Why, I flunked the hack."

"It's your first class. Most of these people have been in attendance for months, and can't accomplish half of what you did."

"So you're the IT guy huh?" she turns to look at him. "You're not at all what I expected."

He feels his pride get wounded a little bit. Did she not think he was smart enough, or good enough? "Why's that?" he asks in a weak voice.

Anna laughs. "Well just from what people have been saying about the computer teacher, I was expecting this angry computer geek to come in, bark at everyone, stomp over to my computer, yell "You're an idiot!" then throw the keyboard in my face."

Birkhoff looks at her speechless. He wasn't ignorant to the rumors people spread about him, but he didn't think they saw him in that bad of a light. He hoped they hadn't poisoned Anna against him. For some reason he wanted her to like him. Maybe because she was the only one in this bunker to ever treat him decently. He was snapped out of his inner monologue when she started speaking again.

"I guess I should know better than to listen to group gossip. It's a bad habit of mine. I'm just relieved I don't have to deal with an angry computer geek screaming at me."

"You don't think I'm a geek?" He asks incredulously.

"Not at all." She assures giving him a big smile. She swings off her stool starting to walk to the stairs. "I have to go to weapons assembly next. That should be fun." She says sarcastically. "I'll see you later BIrkhoff."

After she leaves the lab Birkhoff finds himself staring at her computer station for a few minutes. Maybe for once he could interact with someone who didn't look down upon him, or roll their eyes and laugh every time he opened his mouth.

**A Few Days Later**

For the first time since his employment with Division, Birkhoff finds himself looking forward to teaching the recruits. With Anna there, the other recruits show him more respect, and usually refrain from making fun of him in class. They also follow her lead and do the assignments. Killing that mob boss seems to have gained her respect and admiration amongst the other recruits. Her social butterfly nature helps as well, and they hang on her every word. He wasn't dreading the Bluetooth lesson he was about to give today.

As he walks into the room, he sees some aid passing out an old school flip phone to each of the recruits. They aren't allowed to have anything with a hard drive, and he didn't think they could handle this assignment on a more advanced phone anyway. He notices Anna sitting at a table with two brunette girls. She smiles as they make eye contact, and then reaches to take the flip phone from the aid, snorting with laughter. Calmed from her smile, he begins his lesson. "Bluetooth devices, use 128-bit link keys to encrypt communication. Crack the key, and holy Watergate batman! Any cell phone in range, becomes an instant bug." That was one of his favorite lesson jokes. He continued to use it even though most of the recruits though he was a nerd for it.

As the recruits epically failed to crack the key he walked around and observed them work. "There are too many little bolts and screws." Anna complains to anyone and everyone. "It reminds me of the time my dad and I tried to fix my laptop."

Both Birkhoff and the class are interested in this fact. "You fixed your own laptop?" Birkhoff asks curiously.

"Not exactly." Anna looks up at him. "The cooling fan broke, and the idiots at Office Max wanted 200 bucks to fix it as a flat rate. So we ordered a new cooling fan off the internet for fifteen dollars. Then we pulled up a YouTube video on how to change it. It sucks really, the fan is underneath the entire thing. We had to take out the motherboard, and pretty much all the hardware. I used some plastic Dixie cups to put all the damn screws and bolts in, and labeled each one. The size we ordered was wrong though, so we had to order another. It didn't ship for two weeks, and by that time we had no idea how to put the crap back together. It got reassembled..with some screws to spare, but it wouldn't turn back on, so we must have did something wrong. I just threw it in the trash and got another shitty laptop. Bought the insurance plan with Geek Squad after that though. I learned my lesson with the stupid cooling fans. I put pictures of the project up on Instagram too." She laughed at the story. It made Birkhoff wish he hadn't erased all traces of her. He would be interested in looking through her Instagram.

Nobody was able to properly crack the key, and Birkhoff was getting frustrated with their ignorance. Just as he was about to yell at them Anna made another joke. "Can I just take this to Geek Squad? I think I have a few more months left on my insurance plan."

He turns to her with an amused smirk. "No."

She giggles and Birkhoff finds himself enraptured by the sound." I'm just kidding obviously." She holds up the phone. "I can't go in there with this, they're all going to laugh at me." She impersonates a tech by pointing. "Ah ha ha! Flip phone!"

Birkhoff finds himself laughing, surprised by the ease of it. The other recruits look at him incredulously. She really knows how to liven up these classes.

He was in such a good mood, that he didn't even yell at anyone when they all failed to decrypt the Bluetooth devices on the phones. The class was over before he knew it, and then they all left to go to sparring practice. It was amazing how happier he's become in the week since Anna's arrival.

Later that night, Anna decided to go to the computer lab and try to catch up on some of the hacking assignments. She grasped the main idea of it, but there were still some details she struggled with, coding being one of the bigger ones. Only two other recruits were in the lab, but she didn't want to disturb anyone and sat at a computer in the back of the room. Getting involved with the assignment, she didn't notice the other recruits had left. She also didn't notice the approaching footsteps behind her.

"Hey we have some unfinished business girl!" Tommy booms, yanking on the back of her stool. Anna jumps off and turns to glare at him.

"What the hell do you want?" she asks, pissed he ruined her hack.

"We got a problem little princess, because of you I had to clean the bathrooms, and got put in solitary confinement!"

"That was your own fault! What were you thinking, attacking the head IT guy? Did you really believe nobody was going to do anything about that?"

"I figured they would find it funny. Sending the geek for a little swim. It's not as though anyone takes his scrawny ass seriously around here."

"Wow, real mature." Anna turns and starts to walk to the steps.

"Hey I'm not done talking to you bitch!" he angrily grabs her arm. She struggles against his grasp, and he throws her to the ground.

"What the hell is wrong with you?"

"You're going down bitch!" he lunges at her.

Unfortunately recruits don't receive very much training in the first week, leaving Anna practically helpless against the larger Tommy. Kicking and punching, they roll around on the floor, before Tommy stands up, throwing Anna against the room. She bangs against one of the computer monitors, sending it crashing to the floor. The damage to the system causes alarms to start blaring. Undeterred, Tommy goes to where she's lying on the ground and grabs her throat, starting to choke her. Gasping for breath, Anna tries to pry his hands off her, but is unsuccessful. Desperately, she claws at his face trying to get him to let go. She feels his blood drip on her cheek, but he still doesn't cease his attack. Finally two guards run in and pull him off of her. Birkhoff also runs in, wondering what all the commotion was. He takes one look at the scene before him and yells at the guard restraining him. "Take him to Percy! Now!"

The other guard helps Anna off the floor. "Come on, I'll take you to medical."

Wincing as she walks out of the room, she turns back to look at Birkhoff. "I don't care what anyone says, computers can really hurt you." She jokes in a raspy voice, rubbing her shoulder. He looks at her with concern as she walks out of the room. If circumstances were different, maybe he would have laughed at the joke.

Michael suddenly walks in, holding his head in his palm. "She's a promising recruit." He compliments. 'But I seem to have a lot of work to do. Her only method of defense seems to be clawing at people with her nails."

Birkhoff barely nods at his words, still looking in the direction where Anna and the guard went.


	3. Interrogations and Movie Theaters

Anna walked through the Division hallway, her heels clicking against the oppressively colored floors. She was being evaluated today on her ability to interrogate a prisoner. They had given her real clothes to wear, and she enjoyed having on a sleek blazer and pencil skirt as opposed to the gym clothes she had become accustomed to over the last few days. She wondered if it was normal for recruits to be given evaluations so soon, but she was too excited about her wardrobe to care. She was sure there wouldn't be any problem with the interrogation, and she would be one step closer to being free of this stifling cellar-like place.

As she turned a corner she was met by Amanda holding a gray device in her hand, along with an earbud.

"Your evaluation consists of interrogating a prisoner." She hands Anna a tablet. "This is your target, his name is Cho Smith, a member of a Chinese drug smuggling ring. He's not very valuable as he's one of the lower members, so your job is to get him to give you the names of other high ranking members. I'll keep in contact with you through this earbud and guide you if I think you're getting off track."

Anna puts it in her ear and nods. "You will have fifteen minutes to get him to give you the information. If you can't, I'll get it myself, but remember this is an evaluation so try not to fail."

Anna smirks. "Shouldn't be a problem."

Amanda is impressed by her confidence. It's getting a bit tiresome to always be working with timid recruits shaking in their Division issued sneakers every time she talked to them. "One more thing." She hands Anna the device she's been carrying.

"What's this? She asks curiously.

"The remote for the electric chair the prisoner is hooked up to, in case he needs a little motivation."

At this Anna brightens. "Great! I love tasers." Opening the door, she walks into the room not bothering to shut the door behind her.

Amanda puts her hand out to push the door shut, and stares curiously at it. This girl was going to be difficult to figure out.

The first thing she notices about the room is how blindingly bright it is. The white walls were almost shining in on her, creating an intimidating environment. In the corner sat a worn out Chinese man tied up with wires attached to him. Her eyes followed the wires until they ended inside a big electrical box. Hearing her come in, the man picks up his head to look at her. He sneers. "You're not very intimidating. They sent _you _to come interrogate me?"

At this her irritation level began to rise. She didn't need any of this man's shit. He wouldn't have that smug look on his face for long. Lifting up her hand she pushes her thumb on the remote button. The device activates and shoots into the man's body causing him to groan in pain.

Anna walks up and gets right in this guy's face mockingly. "Well maybe I am not intimidating, but this machine here sure is. Thousands of electrical volts hooked up to you and I have the remote. So I guess that puts me in charge."

The man pants and says nothing. Surprise is evident on his face. "Look, you don't want to be here, I don't want to be here. So why don't you tell me the names of your leaders and we can both leave."

"I will not betray my organization!" the man snarls, fighting against his restraints. Anna sighs and pushes the remote once more. The man writhes in pain for a few seconds and she shuts it off.

"I can do this all day man." Anna says. "I don't have anywhere to be tonight. Any names you want to give me?

The man remains silent. Glancing down at the controls, she notices the increase button. "Fine then, have it your way." Increasing the voltage, she once again activates the chair.

The man writhes, struggling to free himself of his restraints as the electricity flows through him. Sitting back, Anna keeps her finger on the button staring boredly at her nails. She must have kept it on for a full minute before he passes out from the pain.

She notices Amanda has been strangely quiet throughout her interrogation. She had expected her to say _something, _but she hadn't. Standing up, she walked over to the door knocking on it.

"Hey the guy passed out. I can try again later if you want." The door opens and Michael is standing there with an unreadable look on his face. "Sorry I couldn't get the names." She apologizes sheepishly. "The guy's a wimp."

"Yes, you weren't afraid to electrocute him I see."

She looks intently at him. "Why should I be? I don't care if I torture him, know why? Because that's what they do."

"Your evaluation is done for today." Michael states, and moves out of her way.

"Oh ok." She says and walks back down the hallway.

From the moment Anna walked into that interrogation room Amanda didn't know what to expect. That was a rarity among the recruits. Usually Amanda would have one or two sessions with them, put a label on their personality type and actions, and be able to predict what they would do during certain training exercises. Anna was one of the rare cases where this didn't happen. The majority of these evaluations ended in failure, with the recruit freezing up and being unable to do what was necessary to obtain the intel from the prisoner. They couldn't bring themselves to electrocute the undercover agent, and after their ten minutes of failure was up, the poorly tied up agent would jump out of his seat and advance on the recruit, scaring them. It was quite sad how useless most of them were at interrogations, and most of them took too long advancing throughout the training. Those who ended up too far behind were cancelled, as it was no longer worth Division's resources to train them.

It was interesting how instead of looking fearful at the electrocution device, Anna seemed excited about it. As Amanda sat down in her chair to watch the evaluation, she knew it would be interesting.

She was not disappointed.

Anna was barely in the room for a minute before activating the remote. She didn't even ask the man a question first. The moment he undermined her control, she put him in his place and showed him who was boss. Amanda had to admit she was impressed. She was the first recruit to do something like that. Percy sat next to her with a satisfied look on his face. "I knew she would be worth the investment." He brags.

"We did lose two strike teams getting her out of that mob fight." Michael argues.

"Still, nobody who couldn't be replaced. The agents that mattered survived, and we have a promising asset on our hands." He turned back to the screen as the chair was activated again. Five minutes had elapsed.

"She sure doesn't show any mercy." One of the techs commented.

Amanda kept watching the screen. "Yes, that seems to be the case. This is something new."

They watch as the chair is activated for the third time, and the agent passes out. Michael stands up, pushing his chair in. "I'll go and get her."

They watch as Michael and Anna converse on the screen.

The tech turns to them. "You're not thinking about sending her out on that prisoner test are you? She's only been here a little over a week, she needs more time to adjust. Send her in this early and she's sure to end up with PTSD."

Amanda looks at him, annoyed by his commentary but otherwise agreeing with him. "I don't think that's necessary. She already seems to know what we do that exercise to teach. Show no mercy, because your captors won't do the same. She said it herself."

"What will you do with her while the exercise is taking place?" The annoying tech asks once again.

"We can let her observe it from Operations with Birkhoff." Percy answers. "Let her experience it indirectly." Amanda nods in agreement.

The next day Anna is working out with a few of the other recruits, taking turns spotting each other at the weight bench. She's still waiting for feedback on her evaluation, and she would be worried if the other recruits weren't in the same situation. It was one big mystery, but she had a suspicion that Division didn't give any indication of how well you were doing. The recruits could only speculate until they were either approached for a graduation mission or taken to sublevel 6 for cancellation.

Anna was struggling to do reps with the 20 pound weight as Michael walks in.

"Everybody listen up!" Michael calls. Anna pants and places the weight back onto the bench with shaking arms. "Today's tactical lesson will be a little different. You will be learning how to handle sniper rifles. Also, the lesson will take place on one of our off site training grounds. So bring you're A game and be on the bus in thirty minutes."

The recruits chatter excitedly at the prospect of leaving the bunker and seeing the sun again. They practically trip over each other in the doorway, trying to get to the bus as quick as possible.

"Anna, can I speak to you for a moment?" Michael calls out to her.

Not wanting to stand there as the recruits try to figure out how to unclog the door jam, she starts to walk over towards Michael.

"What's up?"

"Here's the thing, you're our newest recruit, and you've only been here a little over a week. We don't feel as though you should be going off site yet."

Anna's face fell. "What? Why not! Am I doing a bad job or something?" she was a mixture of sad and irritated. She thought she had nailed most of her assignments. Okay so she couldn't use that Bluetooth device, but none of the other recruits were successful either. The evaluation wasn't her fault either, the prisoner was weak and passed out on her. They told her to use the electric shocks, it wasn't her fault he reacted badly to them. She seriously doubted someone like Amanda would stop to make sure the prisoner was ok before continuing to interrogate him.

"No, I apologize Anna, but we all think that it is best. However, you can observe the trip from Operations with Birkhoff."

Anna nods and follows Michael up the stairs. Seems like adding insult to injury, making her watch the trip she was being excluded from. At least she could lift some candy from Birkhoff, he was always munching on something sweet and chewy. Poor guy was always being mocked and teased by everyone, and he's not that bad. If people would talk to him like a normal human being, he wouldn't be so hostile. What do they expect, treating him the way they do? He was recruited for his computer skills so it made no sense to ridicule him for them. Everyone was so shocked that he never belittled her or yelled at her in class. It was probably because she showed him respect. You have to earn respect, it doesn't come for free, especially not in this place.

Michael opens the door and Anna follows him in. Immediately a dozen pairs of tech eyes fall on them.

"She shouldn't be in here she's a recruit!" one redhead in the back exclaims.

Michael ignores him, walking to the very front to the blonde drinking a Redbull. "Birkhoff, Anna is going to stay here and observe the trip from Operations. I'm going to see the others off."

"Sure Michael." Birkhoff turns to the tech next to him, and makes a shooing motion with his hand. "Move!" he motions, as if he's chasing away a gnat.

Anna sits down, petulantly crossing her arms in front of her. "They wouldn't let me go because I'm too new."

One of the techs from the middle laughs. "Oh don't worry, you don't want to be on that bus."

Birkhoff tries to cheer her up, secretly glad he doesn't have to watch her be tortured today. "Hey you've got the best seat in the house. You can watch it unfold right here." He gestures widely to the monitors. "You'll see what everybody means in a second."

Anna looks confused. "What?"

"You'll see." He types a few keys and pulls up a feed of the facility. Some of the agents are already walking around, setting things up for the recruits. The place looked like a dump, and the feed was focused on a single damp room. It didn't seem like any training facility but she shrugged it off. Turning her head, she noticed a mission going on in a lush hotel. There was also a third monitor with a bunch of little feeds of what looked like police stations.

"What's that?" Anna asks looking at Birkhoff. "Did you hack into all these security feeds?"

He turns to look at her. "It's called ownage girl. I don't have to hack jack, all these systems are already hacked. One button, boom. Sneakers, River Phoenix, rent it, what's up?"

Anna looks at him with a blank expression. "I understood none of that last sentence. I'm not sure if I'm sleep deprived or if you're just speaking gibberish."

He pulls up another screen, a Wikipedia article. "It's a movie." He explains. "I guess it's a little before your time."

Anna skims the article. "Yeah that does sound like you." She sits back in her chair and laughs.

"What?" he asks a little self-consciously. He thought he was impressing her, she seemed interested in his system. He didn't want her mocking him too.

She blows a puff of air out of her nose. "The world is just one big movie theater for you isn't it?" she glances over at the Red Bull and a package of twizzlers. "Complete with movie snacks and everything." She reaches over and takes one out of the bag.

Birkhoff smiles. "I've never thought of it like that before. Damn right."

"I guess that's why Division doesn't have cable, they don't need it." She reaches over and takes another twizzler, biting off the end.

"Hey those are mine!" he jokingly protests. He doesn't mind sharing his candy with her.

She laughs. "Try and stop me." She stuffs the rest in her mouth and points to a side monitor. "Look!"

As he turns his head, she grabs his can of Red Bull and takes a swig, which she instantly regrets. "Uhh! That is awful! It tastes like battery acid." She puts it on the desk and pushes it away from herself.

"You just got bad taste girl." He sasses, taking a big swig. He is surprised she was willing to share a drink with him. The other recruits would make jokes about catching geek germs. It was nice to spend time with her, and be able to have an actual conversation with someone. She wasn't one of the brainless recruits below his intelligence level, and she spoke to him like a human being, not a geeky android.

Anna wanted to suggestively say "no I don't", but she still didn't know him well enough to know how he would react to the joke flirting. She also didn't think that kind of thing was tolerated in Division.

"It's about to start." One of the techs in the back shouts up.

"What is?" Anna asks, confused again.

Two agents in the facility carry one of her fellow recruits, John, to the middle of the room and tie him to a chair, His head lolls to the side, unconscious.

"What the fuck?" Anna demands, looking around at the techs.

"It's a training exercise." Birkhoff explains gently. "Recruits are told they're going to an off-site facility, and while they're on the bus, they get knocked out and brought to interrogation rooms. They're told that they are enemies of our organization, but it's really undercover Division agents. They torture them and try to get them to give up sensitive information"

Anna is shocked. "Why would Division do that to their own people? It makes no sense."

"Division wants to see how they'll react to the situation. Just a good thing to know."

"So the ones that give up information….they kill them? That's not fair."

"Not necessarily. Everyone has a breaking point, and it helps Division to know what that is. Now the ones that have absolutely no resistance, and will spill their guts the minute they wake up, aren't going to be sent out of high stakes missions."

"So I didn't have to go on that?" She is suddenly grateful they had her stay behind. What she thought would be a fun trip outside was actually horrible torture.

"Probably because you're so new. It would be risky with you. A few recruits end up with PTSD, and the serious cases result in cancellation. Either that or they thought you didn't need it." Personally he thought she was an exemplary agent. She could definitely stand her ground when needed. Not that he ever wanted her in that situation.

She turned back to the tech in the middle. "Hey you were right. I don't want to be on that us anymore."

"I told you." He replied.

Birkhoff turned around glaring at the tech. They were having a nice conversation before he had to put his two cents in. Perhaps it was childish, but he didn't want to share her attention with the less intelligent and less awesome techs. They weren't worthy of her time.

They're all broken out of their conversations by screaming coming though the sound system.

"Why are they electrocuting him?" Anna protests. "If they do it too much, they're going to damage him. Seems pretty counterproductive."

"They don't do it high enough to do any real damage." Birkhoff reassures her. "They just tell the recruits that they're raising the levels to deadly voltages to bait them into talking."

"Oh. Otherwise it would make no sense. Try to see how long they won't talk, but if they don't damage their organs with electric shock. Pointless."

"You have no idea." He nods in agreement.

The battered man finally passes out, and the agents untie him and carry him out the door.

"Man he's going to be so pissed when he wakes up." Anna says.

"Not all of them actually. It's an interesting variety. Some are angry and get violent, others cry and are scared, and some have no reaction at all, which is the scariest group."

She looks over at him. "Did you have to do that?" she asks her voice hinting with concern. She couldn't imagine him having to go through that. He wasn't a field agent trained in all that stuff. It would be open season on him.

"Nah." He boasts. "I'm strictly tech, they don't assign me to field missions. I stay safe and sound in Operations. Very rarely I go into the field to track someone on site, but I'm always accompanied by a strike team. The only action I see is on the monitors."

"Do you ever wish you could go out there?"

"Nah." He waves his hand in the air. "This is where the real fight is. I always have to save everybody's ass, looking out for things they don't see and opening sealed doors for them."

Anna laughs. "I'll bet."

He's a bit surprised. She actually acknowledged his value, without making some remark about his work. He might pull some strings, get her assigned to Operations occasionally. He's had more fun in these last few hours, than he's had since he arrived in Division.

He notices her eyeing the last twizzler, and pushes the bag in her direction. "You can have it." He offers.

"You sure?" starts to reach for it.

"Totally" he smiles and gestures to the screen. "Next one's up! Let's start a pool to see how long he'll last."

"Birkhoff that's terrible!' she laughs. "Besides I don't have any money or even twizzlers to bet with now."

He reaches into the inside pocket of the black sweatshirt he always wears and produces another bag. "Now we do!"

"You're ridiculous." She shakes her head. "All right what's your bet?"

"Three twizzlers he makes it two hours."

"Well I say three that he makes four."

Thirty minutes later the recruit is reciting Divison's history to the undercover agent and BIrkhoff does a victory fist pump.

"Damn it!" Anna sighs.

"No one can beat ShadowWalker. Oh yeah!"

"ShadowWalker? Like the hacker guy?" Anna asks.

"You know him?" Birkhoff is shocked.

"Vaguely. They talked about him in one of my computer classes when they were talking about internet safety and all that. He's badass. Hasn't been active since the 80's or 90's though. Either gave it up or got sent to jail."

The fact that he referred to himself as ShadowWalker seemed to have gone right over Anna's head, and he didn't want to tell her yet. She would probably think it was cool, but he wanted to save that story, and make sure he felt comfortable sharing that part of himself with her. He didn't want to tell her just the fact part of it, but the personal side too. How he got his start as a little kid, toddling up to his dad's computer and cutting off the power to his street when he was mad at him one day. He had to make absolutely sure she would accept it. If she ridiculed him, he wouldn't be able to take it. Unlike the other recruits, he cared about her opinion and wanted her to like him. He shrugged off the other recruits jokes, but it would kill him to hear them from her. He would just wait, and someday hopefully he could tell her his story.


End file.
